


At the End of Time (Rewind)

by positivewlwvibes



Category: Life Is Strange (Video Game)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, F/F, Fix-It, Happy Ending, Memory Loss, Slow Burn
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-07-10
Updated: 2017-07-12
Packaged: 2018-11-30 06:33:32
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,312
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11457984
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/positivewlwvibes/pseuds/positivewlwvibes
Summary: Max rewinds one last time to try and save everyone, sacrificing herself to do it.





	1. Chapter 1

Max watched as the storm descended upon the town, watched as the vortex of wind and rain grew ever closer to leveling her childhood home - leveling everything Chloe had ever known. Max knew this was her fault, but what kind of a universe gave someone powers that weren’t supposed to be used? Like a cruel game of cat and mouse.

She’d spent the last week manipulating the laws of the universe, sure, but she’d been trying to make Arcadia Bay a better place. And now she was being punished for trying to do good with a power she’d never asked for.

Chloe’s hand on her shoulder drew her attention back to the blue-haired girl. Chloe - so crass and rude… kind and vulnerable - she was so good and she didn’t deserve any of this, didn’t deserve to watch her entire life erased before her eyes. She’d already lost enough.

Even in all this chaos, all this death and destruction that was _Max’s fault_ , Chloe still looked at her with so much trust, so much faith that Max would know what to do. That Max could fix this.

Chloe broke eye contact, reaching into her back pocket. “Max,” she started, the nerves in her voice still prominent even over the din of the storm.

“This is the only way,” Chloe finished as she pulled a picture of a little blue butterfly out of her back pocket.

She’d taken it so recently and yet Max felt as though that small moment in the bathroom, that wonderful burst of beauty before everything had exploded was lifetimes away. And with all of the time travel, maybe it was. She had been a different person when she’d taken that picture.

“I feel like I took this shot a thousand years ago,” she murmured, reaching out to take the photograph. It hummed in her fingertips and she didn’t know whether it was the wind whipping around her or the energy in the photograph calling her to fix what had been broken. Maybe it was both.

She turned to face the storm, the constant lightning flashes, the deafening thunder - the storm was nearly on top of them. Max bowed her head to look at the picture, shielding it from the rain as well as she could, but the whirlwind that surrounded her ensured nothing was protected from the torrential downpour.

The silence between the two girls lasted only a beat, but it was heavy with Chloe’s unspoken intentions. Her face was calm, but her eyes betrayed her fear. Blinking out the rain (or the tears - Max didn’t know) Chloe’s eyes never left her face, her faith in Max never wavering.

Before she broke the silence, Chloe glanced out at the storm, steeling herself for what she was about to propose.

“You-” Chloe choked out. “You could use that photo to change everything right back to when you took that picture.”

She looked back at Max, panic in her eyes, as she made a decision that no 19 year old girl should have to. “All it would take is for me to- to…” she trailed off, unable to finish her sentence.

Her knee-jerk reaction was to fight, to make sure that she could save everyone - Chloe included. “Fuck that!” she exclaimed. “No-no way! You are my number one priority now.”

But Max knew she was right, that the only way to save the town would be to rewind one last time and make sure that she never used her powers. That she never had the chance.

Chloe Price was standing in the middle of a storm, begging Max to sacrifice her in order to save a town that had done nothing but reject her for most of her life. Chloe Price, who was so hurt by the world and yet still so genuinely good, was asking Max to kill her.

With her bright blue hair plastered to her head by the rain and her intense blue eyes fixed on Max, she couldn’t imagine a world without Chloe Price in it. She was so uniquely beautiful and there was so much she had left to do in the world.

She’d made up her mind. “You are all that matters to me,” she proclaimed, hoping that Chloe knew how much she meant it.

But Chloe shook her head slightly, looking down at the ground before meeting Max’s gaze once more.

“I know that,” her voice shook, as though she were crying, but it was difficult to tell in the torrential downpour. “You proved that over and over again. Even though I don’t deserve it.”

Now it was Max’s turn to shake her head. How could she not know how amazing she was? How much she meant to Max?

Before she could finish, Max surged forward, tangling her hands in the wet mess of blue hair that was attached to the girl that she loved.

She hesitated only a moment, a moment to ensure that this was okay - that Chloe wanted this, too - before pressing her lips against Chloe’s, softly at first but with an urgency that could only accompany a goodbye.

A brief touch of the lips was all the encouragement Chloe needed to deepen the kiss, gently sucking Max’s bottom lip into her mouth and sending shivers down her spine - shivers that had nothing to do with the cold rain. With her body pressed against Chloe’s like this, Max couldn’t imagine ever being cold again.

She poured everything she had into that kiss and Chloe reciprocated enthusiastically. It was messy and the wind made sure that they both ended up with hair in their mouths multiple times, but it was perfect. Because it was theirs.  

Here, together, they were just two pirates ready to take the world by storm, they knew it couldn’t last forever. But for now, in this moment, the lighthouse was their safe haven again, their protection from a world that gave them the chance to be together and then decided to rip them apart once more.

Max knew it was time. She drew back slowly, gently pressing her lips against Chloe’s 0nce, twice, three times before pulling away completely.

“Max…” Chloe murmured, just barely audible over the sound of the storm. “It’s time.”

She took one last look at her best friend, at the girl that she…

“I love you, Chloe,” she cried, gently cupping her face and moving in for one final kiss.

This one was softer, less urgent. It was salty with tears, with the taste of a permanent goodbye that neither of them wanted to be a part of. Their lips moved slowly together in a rhythm that seemed practiced.

It was too short and, again, Max drew back first, pressing her forehead against Chloe’s. For someone that could control time, Max seemed to never have enough of it.

“I love you, too. I always will,” Chloe whispered.

She took a few steps back before turning away. “Now go be an everyday hero, again," she said, voice shaking. "Do it before I freak.”

She was trying to make light of the situation, but Chloe was obviously terrified. Max wanted to reassure her - to let her know that she was going to be okay, that Chloe would live a long and happy life with no knowledge of what had happened in the last week. Nothing to mourn except the memory of an old friend who showed up out of the blue to save her life.

But she knew that if she told Chloe her plan, she would try and stop her, make her reconsider. Because in this plan, Max probably wouldn’t make it out alive.

Max grabbed the butterfly picture, focusing in on the image but before she zoned out, she heard Chloe say one last thing.

“And Max Caulfield,” she said, her voice stronger now, more determined. “Don’t you forget about me.”

But if Max’s plan worked, if she saved Chloe, there would be no one left to remember any of it.


	2. Chapter 2

A bright light and the click of a closing shutter brought Max back into her body, back into the bathroom where everything began. The butterfly fluttered its wings, startled by the flash. Max followed it with her eyes, watching it go, a beautiful flash of blue under the harsh fluorescent lighting of the high school bathroom.

She quickly swiped a tear from her eye, steeling herself. If her plan was going to work, she had to stop herself from ever using her powers. And she had to save Chloe.

As the butterfly disappeared through the bathroom vent, the door slammed open and Nathan Prescott burst into view, muttering to himself, trying to pump himself up for the altercation with Chloe. But from what Max could tell, the drugs were already doing that.

He was erratic, unpredictable, but Max knew exactly what he was going to do and she knew how to stop it. But Nathan and his gun weren’t the only destructive forces in the room. Even if she hadn’t done it intentionally, Max was capable of destroying the entire town. She had to be stopped, as well.

So Max stood there, back pressed against the cold, graffitied stall, eyes shut tight. She couldn’t hesitate. She had to be strong. But she couldn’t help flinching when the bathroom door slammed open a second time and the blue-haired stranger, the girl she knew best in the world, stormed in.

Timing was crucial. It had to be perfect because there were no redos, no rewinding to fix any missteps. Right now time was finite and she couldn’t mess up.

She knew everything that would happen, Chloe would “check the perimeter”, confront Nathan, threaten to rat him out, to ruin his family name. And drugged up, unpredictable Nathan would pull a gun, and then…. And then….

“Wrong. You got hella cash,” Chloe yelled. 

Time was running out. Time, time, time… She didn’t have enough. Her powers had given her a sense that time was infinite, but now. She was running out of it fast.

The blood was rushing in her ears, her breath was coming faster now. But she had to do this, she had to save Chloe - save everyone - and stop herself from ever using her powers. 

Time slowed, but it wasn’t supernatural. It was the calm before a storm, the eye of a hurricane. A natural stillness that came right before an explosion. 

Max reached up to wipe her face, realizing she’d been crying. She knew why she was doing this, who she was doing this for, but that didn’t mean it wasn’t hard. 

Memories from the last week flashed before her eyes and Max could have laughed because it was so insanely cliche. Breaking into the principal’s office and Chloe’s smug smile as she sat in his chair, the warm blush that flushed her cheeks when they were swimming in the pool in the middle of the night. She remembered Chloe’s promise that it would be the two of them. Forever. 

Joyce’s smile, Kate’s kind heart, and Victoria’s kindness towards the end. Warren’s friendship. And Chloe. Chloe with the rough exterior, built up to protect her fragile heart. A heart that had opened up to Max in less than a week. After years of being apart, it was like nothing had changed.

Chloe. Their reunion, their happiness, the kiss. Those moments meant everything to Max and, she hoped, to Chloe. She wanted to hold onto those because after this, those memories would cease to exist. For Chloe they would have never happened. And for Max?

Well, Max would be dead.

“I can tell everyone that Nathan Prescott is a punk ass who begs like a little girl and talks to himself--” Chloe started, but before she could finish--

Max stepped out from behind the bathroom stalls, both hands by her sides. “Hey!” she shouted, just as Nathan drew the gun from his waistband.

The timing couldn’t have been more perfect. Chloe’s eyes flicked to her’s, a range of emotions flicking through them -- anger, fear, confusion -- and then a spark of recognition. Because Max hadn’t changed all that much in five years.

And then in the reflection of Chloe’s eyes, she saw the flash of a gunshot. 

It didn’t hurt, not really. It was probably shock, but she couldn’t help but think that maybe it was because she was looking into the eyes of her best friend -- Chloe Price’s beautiful blue eyes -- and thinking of everything they were and everything they could have been.

She reached down impulsively to her abdomen and of course it was exactly where he’d shot Chloe. Because Max was taking her place. Someone had to die today to set the universe back in its natural rhythm, to prevent all the chaos that had followed Max from the moment she’d messed with fate.

Her hand came back red, of course it did. She looked up again and Nathan was gone. Chloe’s mouth was moving, screaming, what looked like the word “Max” over and over again. 

Somehow, she was on the ground, Chloe was holding her. Max reached up cradling Chloe’s face in her hand because Chloe was crying. And she didn’t want her to cry.

“No, no,” Max whispered. “Don’t cry, don’t-” but she was so tired. So tired.

Chloe would be fine, though. Her childhood friend, the one who abandoned her without a word for five years, would die in her arms. And it would be hard, but her life would go on. 

Chloe wouldn’t have the memories to make it painful, wouldn’t even remember the last five days because once Max was gone, they never would have happened. She would be fine.

She looked up at Chloe one last time, her beautiful eyes, that flash of blue hair - the same blue as that mystic butterfly that started it all - and with that last look, Max Caulfield blacked out.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm leaving on a road trip today! Sorry it's so short, but I wanted to share this part before I left. I'll try and work on the next few chapters in the car when it isn't my turn to drive.. I hope you like it!

**Author's Note:**

> So, I got back into Life is Strange with the announcement of the new prequel thing... Anyway, I'm finally getting around to writing my own version of a fix for the garbage endings we were offered in the actual game (no offense). I haven't written fic in forever, so I don't know if you're still supposed to do this but.. Obviously I don't own any of the characters, concepts, or some of the dialogue.


End file.
